Warriors knock off Blue Jackets

Sunday

Jan 21, 2007 at 7:41 AM

JAY ADAMS

JENKINS 68, SAVANNAH HIGH 63

The Jenkins Warriors are in the midst of one of their toughest stretches on the schedule this season. Friday night, it was a loss to Beach. Tuesday night, they take on Johnson, which is tied for first place in Region 3-AAAAA. Saturday night, the Warriors, who are starting to establish themselves as a bit of a threat in the region, played host to a middle-of-the-pack Savannah High team.

The Warriors avoided what could have been a huge skid by holding off the Blue Jackets in what turned out to be a close 68-63 win.

Jenkins held on to a five-point lead for much of the fourth quarter, but Savannah High was able to get within one possession with less than a minute left. After taking a two-point lead with less than 20 seconds left, Jenkins caught a break as Savannah's Kevin Williams was called for traveling, thus putting an end to the threat of overtime.

"We were just trying to get back into the game," Savannah coach Tim Jordan said. "But every time they wouldn't let us play aggressive. That's how we play. We play aggressive when we're allowed to play aggressive."

Throughout the first quarter, Jenkins and Savannah traded leads as neither team was able to pull away by more than one possession. The second quarter proved much different as a scoring drought by the Warriors allowed the Blue Jackets to go into cruise control for a while.

Savannah eventually went up by eight points with less than two minutes left in the first half, thanks in large part to an 11-2 run that was sparked by its deadly perimeter game. The Blue Jackets hit two 3-pointers during the first half, both of which came at a time when Savannah either needed to gain momentum or keep it going.

Jenkins, however, wasn't letting up. Just as the Blue Jackets had done to them, the Warriors went on a run of their own before halftime.

Also due to its outside game, Jenkins went on a 7-0 run as the final minute ticked down in the first half to only go into the break down by one point.

It was much of the same to start the second half. Jenkins began to pull away as Savannah's accuracy started to falter. The Warriors cleaned up defensive rebounds and hardly gave the Blue Jackets a second chance at scoring on several possessions. That resulted in an 8-1 run that put the Warriors up by six.

All those leads made it even more important for Jenkins not to sit back and be satisfied with being ahead on the Blue Jackets.

"That was real important," Jenkins coach Gregory Oliver said. "You've got to think about it, they've got Williams and the kid can shoot. So anytime he gets the ball he's going to shoot, so we couldn't get complacent."

Williams finished with a game-high 25 points. Jenkins' John Osborne had with 22 for the Warriors.